Publications

24 Oct 2013
Working Paper Summaries

When $3+$1 > $4: The Effect of Gift Salience on Employee Effort in an Online Labor Market

Keywords: by Duncan Gilchrist, Michael Luca & Deepak Malhotra

10 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

The Legacy of Boaty McBoatface: Beware of Customers Who Vote

Brierley Professor of Business Administration. “But even when firms never guarantee that consumers will choose the winner, consumers infer an implicit contract and are upset when that View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising

December 2011 (Revised April 2012)
Case

On Two Wheels in Paris: The Vélib' Bicycle-Sharing Program (Supplement)

By: Peter A. Coles and Elena Corsi

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Contracts; Negotiation; Growth and Development Strategy; Bicycle Industry; Paris

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

The ABCs of Addressing Climate Change (From a Business Perspective)

in the demand response space, and Johnson Controls, in the energy performance contracting space, are business that create financial value from stretching resources farther.... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Energy; Utilities

21 May 2019
Working Paper Summaries

rTSR: When Do Relative Performance Metrics Capture Relative Performance?

Keywords: by Paul Ma, Jee-Eun Shin, and Charles C. Y. Wang; Financial Services

November 2011
Case

Lowell General Physician Hospital Organization

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Natalie Kindred

This case focuses on the Alternative Quality Contract (AQC), a novel payment program designed to incentivize providers to deliver less costly, high quality health care. Under the AQC, offered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, providers received a fixed-dollar... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Service Delivery; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Massachusetts

January 2025
Case

Constitutional Fiction: John Miller & the Legitimacy of Family Constitutions

By: Lauren Cohen, Octavian Graf Pilati and Sophia Pan

John Miller sat reviewing his family’s Constitution, grappling with how best to implement and enforce its provisions. Designed to prevent ambiguity in governance, the Family Constitution set out core values and guidelines to promote harmony and cohesion among family... View Details

01 Oct 1996
News

Working Behind the Scenes — Alan F. Horn (MBA 1971)

preachy." Horn was subsequently asked to become a board member of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in 1990. "In the face of the View Details

Keywords: Thomas Frick

01 Jun 2001
News

Group Therapy: The Role of Business Groups in Emerging Economies

Look beyond the United States and Great Britain and you are likely to find networks of companies — ranging from Latin America’s grupos to India’s business houses to Japan’s keiretsu — that are integral parts of View Details

Keywords: Peter K. Jacobs; Market Research, Photo, Translation, Veterinary and Other Services; Professional Services

June 2013
Case

Ron Ventura at Mitchell Memorial Hospital

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Heide Abelli

Mitchell Memorial Hospital is a 750-bed regional academic medical center in Ohio. Andy Prescott, Chief of the Cardiovascular Center, is reviewing the performance evaluations of his star vascular surgeon Ron Ventura. The evaluations, the result of a 360-degree... View Details

Keywords: Performance Expectations; Conflict Management; Behavior; Groups and Teams; Organizational Culture; Resignation and Termination; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Evaluation; Health Industry; Ohio

September 1993
Case

Daka International, Inc. (A)

Deals with an employee who contracts AIDS. The employer, a food-service proprietor, is threatened by an old and valued client with the loss of the account if they do not fire him. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Decision Choices and Conditions

March 1997
Background Note

Copper and Zinc Markets 1996

By: Peter Tufano

Provides background information on copper and zinc markets as of mid-1996. Discusses supply and demand conditions, forecasts of the spot prices of the metals, and contracts for future delivery (forwards, futures, and options). View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Metals and Minerals; Supply and Industry; Mining Industry

25 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

Steer Clear of the Blind Spots That Derail Experiments

contract employees—paid $3 or $4 an hour—delivered the same output in a data-entry task. However, a third group paid $3 an hour plus an unexpected $1 wage increase were 20 percent more productive. An... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

24 Apr 2020
Op-Ed

Lessons from the NFL: Virtual Hiring, Leadership, Building Teams and COVID-19

system to be unfair. Today any player with four complete seasons (or more) and an expired contract is considered to be an unrestricted free agent. The 2020 free agency is notable for View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Abbott , Boris Groysberg, Tali Groysberg, and Abhijit Naik; Sports

June 2003 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Schering-Plough and Genome Therapeutics: Discovering an Asthma Gene

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Marc Aquino

Personalized medicine requires the identification of mutated genes. Schering-Plough's search for the one related to asthma requires finding families with the disease. Examines the industry that helps conduct such research, including contract research organizations. View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Research and Development; Genetics; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

01 Mar 2018
News

Can a Digital Platform Open Up the Opaque Metals Industry?

and negotiate deals. If a tender or bid goes through and both parties sign a contract and deliver the material, they pay Open Mineral a fee per ton of raw material. Chernilovskiy, who is View Details

Keywords: Nicole Torres

20 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Big Deal: Reflections on the Megamerger of American and US Airways

agreements or use the threat of such rejection as leverage to obtain financial concessions from lessors and other counterparties. For an airline that leases its planes, this can generate enormous cost savings. This ability to reject or... View Details

Keywords: Re: Rosabeth M. Kanter & Stuart C. Gilson; Air Transportation

March 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Sunōmi Switchel: Time to Switch?

By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Shani Carter McKinney and Alexandra Horvitz

Nicole Blank has bootstrapped her functional beverage company, Sunōmi Switchel, to contracts with leading grocery retailers. She is now faced with a series of choices for if and how to continue to grow the business. View Details

Keywords: Startup; Start-up; Startup Management; Burnout; Entrepreneur; Entrepreneurial Journey; Bootstrap; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Startups; Crisis Management; Financial Condition; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; District of Columbia